The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-11-04
HEIR TO A BIG FORTUNE.
A NEWSPAPERS NAN OF PHILADEL-
PHIA IN GREAT PROSPECTS.

Waking Up to Suddenly Find an In
heritance of Over 100000 Staring
His Family in the Face-His Share to
Be Over 100000.
From, the Philadelphia Press.
There is a fortune of 100000, now held
nv the State of New York, to which a
Young newspaper man of this city, with his
brothers and sisters, some of whom are in
England are legal heirs. In the last week
they have laid formal claim to the money,
and their lawyer, Nelson G. Waterbury, the
veteran advocate and politician of New
York city, is confident that i'll a short time
he will prove his right to restore to the heirs
the fortune that for twenty years has been
accommodating compound interest in the
treasury of New York.
The romantic story is that in 1919 a great
unce of the presumptive heirs, who was
Colonel of tie Fifty-eghth English Regi-
ment, was ordered to Canada. He went aud
took with him his two motherless boys,
Edwin and William. A few years later the
regiment was ordered back to England.
The old Colonel had grown to like the cOun-
try during his stay and decided to leave the
two boys there in charge of a French
Catholic priest at Amherstburg, Ont, with
priest was to educate them, and finally they
were to be sent home to their father in
England. After stay of two or three
years with the priest the boys tired of the
life and ran away. They We're never heard
of afterward by the old Colonel, who used
every means to trace them, and he died a
few years later in England, without ever
having heard from the missing children.
1t was learned long after ward that Edwin,
he n MICHIGAN
all trace of him has been lost. William,
from whom the fortune comes, came to
Brooklyn. He was known to his neghborS
as a crank and a miser, and he lived alone
for he had never married, in his big house,
and grew very rich in speculation. His
neighbors supposed him to be a Frenchman,
for he spoke English with a French accent
"a relic of his early Canadian training I'M
der his priestly tutor-and to encourage
them, and TO further conceal his identity,
he slightly changed the spelling of his name.
This, too, would have remained a secret had
he not in his will made bequest to his
brother, whom he said spelled his name as
do the present heirs.
In 1867 William died. childless so far as
known, leaving $500, 900. The property
consisted of the house in which he had lived
for years, money in bank, government and
other bonds and stocks; S14, 900 was LETT in
various sums to servants and other people
whom he had known; $4,000 was be-
queathed to his brother Edwin, whom he
had not seen after their escape from Am
herstblrg, and from whom it is supposed he
had never heard. The remainder of the
large estate was to found an orphanage.
The will was broken by the courts because
of some infoimalities in execution, and the
orphanage bequest was set aside
No heirs to the old man appeared and the
money was locked up in the New York
Treasury. Eigha years ago an advertise
ment for heirs app, AIRED in a New York
paper, and hc;t' -, people of all sorts of
names put Gains, but their rights to the
fortune were not proven, and the matter
was again forgotten.
How the Philadelphia newspaper man
learned of his right to the money is interest
ing. His brother is an editorisl writer on
the New York HerdiG. A month or so ago
a story was written fol' them about the es-
tate, and was deemed so mimportan5 that
1t was not printed A friend in the office
told him of it, and u sent home to England
inquiring about it.
The old family lawyer kne of the ex-
istence somewhere III America a. Canada OF
the children OF tf.t oil colonel, who, dying,
had told the story of the boys who had run
away. He cabled the positive proofs of the
relationship of the presumptive heirs, one of
whom is newspaper man of this city. He
at once engaged counsel, and hopes in a
short time to be in possession of the money
to which an accident revealed his righS.